Community

Uttoxeter volunteers gave up their time to litter pick the streets and footpaths of the town. The Uttoxeter Spring Clean took place on Saturday 10 March and helped to remove 14 bags of harmful litter and a discarded TV!

There are serious litter issues around Uttoxeter public footpaths and cut-through alleyways throughout the town. To clear this waste from the streets across the whole of East Staffordshire, it costs the Local Authority £970,000 per year.

Community volunteers gave their time to clear various litter hotspots around Uttoxeter, including the footpaths between Heath Road and Springfield Road, Bramshall Road and its footpaths and the grass verge that runs along the perimeter of the Tesco Superstore.

Amongst the litter collected, a large number of offending items were sweet wrappers, fizzy drink cans and plastic bottles. Plastic bottles alone take at least 450 years to degrade, in which time they harm wildlife and can cause vermin infestations, all of which is avoidable!

Uttoxeter Spring Clean is run by The Globe Foundation, Globe’s Event Director, Kate Copeland said

“We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received, we would like to thank the team of volunteers that did a tremendous job on Saturday and to local cleaning contractors IdVerde, Moorland Contract Cleaning and Uttoxeter Racecourse, who kindly donated the litter picking equipment.

“We were pleased to be able to remove 14 bags of litter (and one TV) from the streets and footpaths, but saddened that it was there in the first place. Littering is not acceptable and we need to educate people to stop them from doing it.

“We will be working closely with community members and groups to help minimise poor waste behaviours, with a particular focus on single use plastics. We can only tackle these issues if everyone is on board and working together.”

The Uttoxeter Spring clean is part of a national initiative, The Great British Spring Clean, a campaign with a simple aim: to bring people across the country together to clear up the litter that blights our towns, villages, countryside and beaches. The national campaign is run by Keep Britain Tidy and aims to inspire 500,000 people to get outdoors, get active and help clear up the rubbish that lies around us.

Globe hope to run another litter pick in the summer and will also be running a number of other sustainability events, if you would like more information or to volunteer please visit globefoundation.org.uk/events